Astronomers on Tuesday detected two massive waves of hydrogen gas being “burped” out of a black hole which resides at the core of a neighboring galaxy.
According to BBC, x-ray images of the event were taken by NASA’s Chandra space telescope, which detected the “burping.” Based on the images, it has been determined that the gas being burped is cooler hydrogen gas emerging in swathes.
The galaxy where this black hole phenomena is taking place is known as NGC 5194. This galaxy is a small, weak relative of the “Whirlpool Galaxy,” which resides 26 million light years away.
This represents the short distance a gas burping black hole has ever been discovered near Earth.
These findings were presented at the 227th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Florida.
The burping itself is a drastic example of “feedback” between a supermassive black hole and its host galaxy.
“We think that feedback keeps galaxies from becoming too large,” said Marie Machacek, a co-author of the study from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CFA).
Black holes are typically known for consuming gas and stars. A black hole spewing gas is somewhat odd.
It is hypothesized that the black hole in question is most likely gorged on gas that it absorbed from its galaxy’s massive neighboring galaxy.
Initially, the gas was thought to have simply existed near the black hole and was not being burped out of it. However, through intense examination the x-ray images, it was carefully determined that it was indeed hydrogen gas being emitted from the blackhole.